Best high school mascot in New Hampshire: Top 5 candidates

From Hillcats to Engineers, meet the best high school mascots in New Hampshire

Hillcats and Blackbirds and Pythons, oh my.

New Hampshire is among the leaders when it comes to fewest high schools among U.S. states, and a few of them boast animals rarely seen as mascots.

SBLive Sports' love for unique mascots with interesting back stories has been well documented.

We've crowned Hodags and Imps the past couple of years in national high school mascot contests, and now we're taking a spin through every state.

Over the next couple of months we'll go from Alabama through Wyoming featuring each state's best high school mascots, and then give readers a chance to vote for their favorite. Our New Hampshire poll will post Nov. 4 on highschool.si.com and stay open through Nov. 11.

Here are the top 5 high school mascots in New Hampshire:

Hillsboro-Deering Hillcats

A combination of a bobcat and a lynx, these are the only Hillcats in the nation among high schools. The red cat in Hillsboro-Deering’s logo is definitely not one you’d ever want to try to pet.

Keene Blackbirds

If Paul McCartney transferred from Liverpool to a U.S. high school as a teenager, Keene would have been an inspiring destination. The school’s blackbird mascot looks like it could give cartoon magpies Hekyll and Jekyll a run for their money.

Manchester Central Little Green

Believe it or not, the Little Green used to be red. After the start of the 20th century, Concord and Manchester Central, which were both crimson red, decided that the winner of a league championship would keep its colors. Concord won, and Manchester Central chose forest green as its new color. Little Green came about as a counterpart to Dartmouth College, which is the Big Green.

Pelham Pythons

Pythons aren’t native to New Hampshire or anywhere in North America, but Pelham is among five U.S. high schools that use the nickname. What makes Pelham's Pythons stand out is the school's assortment of superior logos, most of which incorporate a blue-and-white python wrapping around a blue-and-white P.

Woodsville Engineers

Woodsville opened in the late 1800s, and athletes for several years were called Woodsvilleites and wore green and orange uniforms. Both changed in the 1940s, when the school switched its colors to green and white to align with Dartmouth College, and its mascot changed to the Engineers in honor of Woodsville's roots as a railroad town.

(Feature photo by Brad Rempel/USA Today Sports)

—

-- Mike Swanson | swanson@scorebooklive.com | @sblivesports